U.S. Foreign Policy

Since my post on WikiLeaks last week in which I half-seriously called for a declaration of war against the group I’ve had some rather interesting conversations with my politically-aware friends. I have liberal and conservative friends (as a moderate, I can do that) and had fully expected them all to share my views on WikiLeaks. […]

A very interesting juxtaposition in the news caught my eye this last week, thanks to WikiLeaks. I’m not praising WikiLeaks, mind you, merely pointing out that leaked cables revealed that the president of Mexico had been urging the U.S. to take a more active role in the region to counter belligerent actors in South America […]

A bit of good news on the diplomatic front: The U.S. has persuaded Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko (known as Europe’s Last Dictator) to give up its stocks of highly enriched uranium (HEU).  This is a significant win because Belarus has been a difficult country to deal with in the past, and it is a pretty […]

I’ve had a very busy day but on this World AIDS Day I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the U.S. role in fighting the global AIDS pandemic. What is the U.S. doing to fight AIDS? Let’s go from the general to the specific. First, let’s start with the State Department and the official statement […]

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article on a small but growing number of U.S. students applying to British universities – not as study abroad but as their home institution.  The article is here.   U.S. high school and transfer students are looking at colleges outside the country as the price of an American college […]

U.S. foreign policy is in the news today with the release by Wikileaks of secret diplomatic cables. As a blogger for the Foreign Policy Association, foreign policy is naturally something that I take seriously and I’m really amazed and stunned at this malicious attack on American foreign policy. You know, when I first heard about […]

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has announced a new project focused on strengthening U.S. global engagement and strategic communications (called “Strengthening America’s Global Engagement – SAGE).  Here is what they say about the project: In July 2010, the MacArthur Foundation joined with the Wilson Center to host a dinner that included key Obama […]

Last week I attended the latest installment of the Global Challenges Forum, held in Geneva and co-chaired by the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization.  Here is what NPS says about this effort: The Global Challenges Forum will bring together representatives from governmental and non-governmental partners to explore joint policy research […]

If you are looking for an illuminating bit of commentary on U.S.-North Korean relations in light of the North’s recent shelling of its southern neighbor from someone who knows quite a bit about the subject, check out this clip of CSIS’ Michael Green on Washington Journal, courtesy of C-SPAN.  Green also wrote a great feature […]

This past Tuesday, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) came out against the consideration of New START during the lame duck session stating his desire for greater assurances of support from the Obama Administration for the modernization of U.S. nuclear labs and protection from limitations on U.S. missile defense programs.  That same day, Vice President Biden and […]

Senate ratification of the renewal of the START nuclear arms reduction treaty may be stalled by domestic politics. As you will recall, the old treaty expired in December and the U.S. and Russia worked to put together a new treaty that will continue their decades-long commitment to draw-down their nuclear arsenals. The heavy-lifting has already […]

This year the University at Albany’s (SUNY) Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies created a new organization focused on global higher education.  The Cross-Border Education Research Team (C-BERT) is co-directed by faculty members Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser.  Here is what they say about their mission and focus: Over the past two decades, there […]